Why cant this be added to bitfield_vbulletin.xml? I have tried, but it doesnt work.

It can ... but you shouldn't do that, as bitfield_vbulletin.xml will be overwritten during an upgrade, which means you would have to redo the changes.
If you use your own XML file it will still be there and used after an upgrade.

how does one go about putting a title on the grey table header? I tried phrase="_phrase_var_" and text="phrase text" but neither worked.

Quoting myself to answer your question:

yea, i read that but figured I also needed another param because it wasnt (and isnt) working

download_permissions is a phrase that says Download Permissions

I'll try looking over everything to see if there are errors, but I dont see how I could have messed up.

Have you tried phrase="download_permissions" instead of name=?

Kirby - Any way to make this work with Forum Options? :)

Rather than editing forum.php ;)

Satan

there're optional ways to use the permission:

along with

$permissions['myhackpermissions'] & $vbulletin->bf_ugp['myhackpermissions']['canfoo']

you can use

$permissions['myhackpermissions'] & $vbulletin->bf_ugp_myhackpermissions['canfoo']

or

$permissions['myhackpermissions'] & 1

the last one is the shortest one but then you won't understand what it does, 1 is the value of <bitfield> tag, just similar as the old permission settings.

I found that the 'canfoo' is case sensitive, this took me almost a day to figure out lol

I still don't understand how I could add forumpermissions?

I've tried to play with it, I've added an xml file with the content of kirbyDE, but it didn't work.

Take a look at my recent Get New Posts Hack and you'll see :)